Grass court... Djokovic fury as smell of cannabis sends him dizzy during match
it was a scene that would be unimaginable among the pristine whites and strawberries and cream of wimbledon.
and i t seemed tennis world number-one novak Djokovic could not believe it either.
after smelling cannabis drifting over the court from the crowd during his semi-final match in the Canadian Open, the serb was forced to complain to the umpire.
Djokovic, who was due to face andy Murray last night in the rogers Cup final, had just won the first set against French opponent Jeremy Chardy when he complained the smell was distracting him.
He said to the umpire: ‘someone is smoking weed, i can smell it, i’m getting dizzy. somebody is getting high. Can you smell it? the whole place smells of it.’
and when the umpire laughed, Djokovic said: ‘no, honestly.’
Gesturing to someone off-camera he raised his arms in disbelief before mimicking smoking.
Djokovic – who won saturday’s match on the Montreal stadium’s 11,700- seater centre court – later told reporters: ‘ You can’t believe how bad it was.
‘whoever it is, i hope he doesn’t come back tomorrow. He’s probably on the seventh sky somewhere.’
Djokovic said he had also noticed the smell during a doubles match with partner Janko tipsarevic on Friday. He said: ‘Yesterday in the doubles match, today again. somebody’s really enjoying his life around the tennis court.’
it is not the only unorthodox incident at the tournament, after australian player nick Kyrgios was fined $10,000 for his slur against swiss opponent stanislas wawrinka.
in the middle of their match at the Montreal tournament, the 20-yearold claimed another player had slept with wawrinka’s girlfriend, before adding: ‘sorry to tell you that, mate.’
the ‘girlfriend’ mentioned was thought to be 19-year- old blonde Croatian player Donna vekic.
wawrinka later said: ‘so disappointing to see a fellow athlete and colleague be so disrespectful in a way i could never even imagine.’
last night a tennis Canada spokesman said: ‘as soon as Djokovic complained, our security people looked to find the responsible person but we weren’t able to find that person. as per our procedure, we go through everyone’s bags before they come on site and people are obviously not allowed to smoke in the stadium so we want to make sure today that this situation will not happen again.’